Sunday, 26 May 2013

I decided to use the flowers from the Pop-Up Posies designer kit, which led me to a Calypso Coral and Pool Party color combo.I spritzed the flowers with water and scrunched them up. Once they were dry I spritzed them again with Calypso Coral ink in the color spritzer before using a brad to join all the individual flowers together. The Very Vanilla banner was run through the Big Shot with the Honeycomb EF then tied with some baker's twine. A very subtle, tone-on-tone "thank you" in the bottom right hand corner finishes off the card.

Saturday, 25 May 2013

This week's challenge at Friday Mashup is a fun one! Use pencil on your card. As soon as I read the challenge, I immediately thought of a set of stamps I bought way back in the early 2000's when I first started stamping. They are from a British company and I saw a card set in a British magazine using the stamps colored with nothing more than a pencil. The card set was stunning, so I did my best today to do credit to one of the beautiful stamps:

I kept my card very simple to let that cute little image shine. I colored the shoe and mouse using a pencil I had to scrounge around in my son's bag to find. I then blended my coloring with Gamsol and a blending stump. My bright color is Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon. This image makes me smile. I really wish I had all my stamps readily accessible but my non-SU stamps are relegated to the cupboard under the stairs and it's a chore to get to them. But I think the effort was worth it today!Here is the detail on the challenge:

Create a project using "your choice of a Neutral & a Splash of one Bright Color".

Create a project "using a Pencil (regular graphite #2)".

Or Mash it Up and create a project "using pencil & your choice of a neutral & a Splash of a Bright Color".﻿

Thursday, 23 May 2013

I must be in the mood for stars lately, because this card, like my last one, also uses stars. This time I'm using the colors from Dynamic Duos and the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. This also meets the criteria for this week's CAS Masculine challenge at The Paper Players.

I'd forgotten what a lovely color Pacific Point is - especially when paired with black. And this sketch is a keeper!

This was one of those rare instances where I knew who I was making this card for and I knew I would be mailing it, so I tried to keep it flattish. I used the retired Seeing Stars set again and I also dug out some old rub-ons called Anchored. Anybody remember rub-ons LOL? I stamped the two large stars using a large and smaller outline stamp. The small star is a rub-on which I then punched out with the retired small star punch. The black panel has been embossed with a circle EF (hard to see in the photo). Before I put the card together, I thought it would be fun to punch out part-star shapes from the black panel, so that the stamped and cut stars would be nicely framed. I like the effect.The sentiment is also a rub-on from Anchored.

Thanks for looking.Products used (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated):Stamps: Seeing StarsCardstock: Whisper White; Pacific Point; Basic BlackInk: Basic BlackAccessories: Anchored Rub-Ons; small and large star punches; circle EF (Craft Creations)Edited to Add: This card was chosen at Dynamic Duos for a Dynamic Darling award and also at Freshly Made Sketches as a Perfect Princess card.CheersKarren

Sunday, 19 May 2013

The title of this blog post has me singing Don McLean's "Vincent" in my head:

Starry, starry night

Paint your palette blue and grey

Look out on a summer's day...

Now you've got in your head, too? You're welcome LOL.

Anyway, onto the card. I made this card today for the color challenge at Just Add Ink and the sketch challenge at CAS(e) This Sketch. I haven't been able to play along at CAS(e) for weeks and I'm glad I got a chance today.

I pulled out an old, retired Stampin' Up! set (that wasn't even mounted) called Seeing Stars. I love the graphic look of the images and used pretty much all the images in the set. I stamped using the color challenge colors of Midnight Muse; Lucky Limeade and Crumb Cake. The image panel is mounted onto the card base using dimensionals. The sentiment comes from a Penny Black set.

Saturday, 18 May 2013

I spent the whole afternoon stamping today and it was great. Unfortunately, of the 4 items I made, 3 were for upcoming DT obligations so I can only share one card at this stage.I made this card for the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and the monochromatic/baker's twine challenge at Friday Mashup.

I went for a black and white color scheme and pulled out an old, retired set called Bronc Buster. The main image is white-embossed on black and popped up on dimensionals. I deliberately kept the card clean and simple, letting the starkness of the colors and single image stand out. The two brads are also retired.

Saturday, 11 May 2013

It's been a long week at work and I've had hardly any time to check my favorite blogs, so it was with relief that I finally made it into my craft room this afternoon. I decided to combine the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches with the challenge at Just Add Ink, which is to Just Add Woodgrain.

I hope Narelle doesn't mind but I did substitute the leaves and bud for the banners at the bottom of the card. In hindsight, I should have cut the circle higher up the card, and basically I was left with no room for banners, so I had to get creative! The card has a white base. I adhered the Lattice Die onto the base and then a woodgrain embossed layer using dimensionals.The flowers and leaves all come from the Stippled Blossoms set. I usually use the large roses, but today decided to go with the smaller roses and buds. Lots of fussy cutting here, let me tell you!Thanks for looking.

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

This card was a real challenge for me - a card using Summer Starfruit as one of the main colors does not come naturally to me. I know there are a lot of people out there that like it, but it just hurts my eyes LOL.Anyway, a challenge isn't a challenge without doing something different, so I went with the colors from Pals Paper Arts, the sketch from Fab Friday and the Celebrating Mom theme from Stampin' Royalty and this is the result:

I kept a lot of white space on this card to try and tone down the starfruit - not sure if it worked. I do like the pattern in the Sycamore Street DSP so I used that and then used markers to color the chevron image from Oh Hello. Again I used a Designer Builder Brad for my embellishment.

Sunday, 5 May 2013

I love the sketch at Just Add Ink this week and decided to go bright with one of my favorite color combos from the Color Coach - Daffodil Delight; Calypso Coral and Baja Breeze. I teamed these up with black and white to make this card:

I also used the embossing part of the Friday Mashup challenge. I've just made a few graduation items for my Creative Crew projects on SCS and have no need for any more but this card did have a lot of embossing.I really like the way this card came out - the black background really make the emboss-resist squares pop. I left quite a wide white frame around the main image to make it stand out more. The gorgeous Designer Builder Brads add a bit of glam to the card.

I made Basic Gray my main color with Calypso Coral as my second color and the only Pool Party I used were two buttons from the SAB 2013 kit. I turned the buttons upside down because I preferred the smoother side.

Thursday, 2 May 2013

Hi all. Well the time has come to reveal my May 2013 Creative Crew projects. First, here's the lowdown on this month's challenges:

Spring it up - May 2013

Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, tired bears are coming out of hibernation it’s time to party!!! Errrrr, I mean…time for spring!So much begins to happen right now graduations, showers, weddings, birthdays, reunions, and probably a lot more than I've mentioned! With that in mind I'd like you to check out this site:25 Parties to Ring in Spring | The New Home EcPick a party, any party, be inspired by the colors, the decorations, the foodie stuff, the patterns, the prints, oh my there are so many ideas here!This is the party I chose as my inspiration:

From this photo, I took the chalkboard and soft colors and applied those across all my projects. Here is each challenge and how I interpreted it:

CCREW0513DF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM -- DSP/Color Focus: All of our DSP is likely to be leaving us after this month, so use whatever DSP or color combo that includes brights & pastels to go with the party you've picked.

For this card, I chose my favorite DSP which is Fan Fair. I also just bought the Postage Due set and wanted to take it for a test drive. I white-embossed the main image plus two of the postage stamp images onto Basic Black cardstock and gently sponged Whisper White ink over the images. The main image is mounted on dimensionals onto a slightly bigger Basic Black layer and the postage stamp images are punched with the Postage Stamp punch. The ribbon is gathered onto Sticky Strip with a Soda Pop Top embellishment.

CCREW0513CF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM -- Catalog focus: Die Cuts! When you look through the parties you're likely to see banners, boxes, rosettes, and more - create a project using your Big Shot and favorite die.

I don't do 3D very often and I'm ashamed to admit that this is the first time I've used the Fancy Favor Box Die - and I've had it for a good couple years! Keeping with the chalkboard theme, I white embossed the feet image from Go Graduate and sponged Whisper White ink. A pretty pink bow finishes off this easy-to-mass-produce treat box.

CCREW0513HF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM -- Holiday focus: Hmmm, isn't a party good enough? It's creative choice this month, you pick from graduation, wedding, or birthday.

This card again uses Fan Fair DSP plus the Owl Punch. This saying from Word Play is so appropriate for a new graduate and the wee tag hanging off the bow again uses Go Graduate stamp set.

CCREW0513SF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM -- Scrapbook focus: Let's get into the SCS time machine and go back to a sketch from 2011 - SBSC283 5.20.11

I need to start by saying that I'm not a scrapbooker! Having said that, I used MDS and it was much better than the painful attempts I've had scrapbooking with cardstock LOL. Here is the sketch I worked from:

Again I used Fan Fair DSP and embellishments. I tried to create a chalkboard effect for the title and journalling, and used some free Chalkboard fonts to aid in that attempt.

So there are my first month's projects. It was fun tying all four projects together with a similar theme.

Thanks for looking. It'd be great if you had a go at these challenges yourself. There are plenty of party themes to choose from at the link at the top of this post.

About Me

I've been stamping regularly for about 16 years now and I love it! It's a great way to unwind after a hard week crunching numbers at my day job. My home life involves my DH and two sons, 19 and 14, as well as our dog Dexter.